Personal computer (PC) systems are well known in the art. They have attained widespread use for providing computing power to many segments of today's modern society. Also, mobile computing devices, such as notebook PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), sophisticated wireless phones, etc., have also achieved widespread usage. The widespread use of such devices in various segments of society has resulted in a reliance on computer systems both at work and at home to facilitate functions such as for obtaining news and stock market information, buying, selling, trading, banking, shopping, shipping, submitting information and communication generally in the form of hypertext transfer protocol (http) and e-mail, as well as other communication formats and services. Many of these functions take advantage of the communication abilities offered by the Internet or other networks, such as local area networks.
One feature that has become important to many is receiving news over the Internet or getting news “on-line” utilizing a computing device having a browser to access Internet based news services. Generally, a consumer can utilize a browser or other interface on their communication device to preview a series of headlines on a web page wherein the webpage typically provides selectable links, that when selected, allow a browser to download news articles. For example, a user may visit a news service such as Reuters, CNN or ABC or just a local news service provided by a small local media company by using a keyword search or by utilizing a network address. Websites such as those provided by the news services mentioned above will typically have a “title page” with selectable links, commonly referred to as a front page. The front page will typically have supporting pages, that can be retrieved when an appropriate link on the front page is selected by the user.
The content and links provided by such services continually change as new events unfold and new articles are written. Front pages have a limited amount of space and thus, as new material or news becomes available, content stored at a server of the website will be automatically refreshed and links to new content will replace links to old or outdated content. For example, assume that there are six different headlines displayed on a website of a news service, wherein each headline is further explained by a brief written paragraph and a selectable link provides access to the “full story.” Selection of the link will cause the users computer to download and display the “full story” related to the headline. It is a common occurrence for the user to select a link and retrieve, display and read an entire article. After the story is read, a user will typically press a “back” button of the browser and accordingly the browser will “re-retrieve” or redisplay the front page of the web-site.
Many news services are very dynamic and after downloading and reading a full story, the headlines, and the links that were originally provided on the front page and displayed to the user may have been replaced with new content and new links at the server. If a user desires to show the full story to someone else such as another family member at a later date, the headline and the link may have disappeared from the web page. In such a situation, it can be very difficult, if not impossible for a user to locate and retrieve the article, because the link cannot be found. This is true even though article is still stored on a server somewhere and will probably be available for an extended period of time, possibly years.
In another situation, a user of the news services may start reading the headlines and be interrupted by a phone call or some other distraction and when the user returns to the computer and attempts to retrieve the original website, the content or the link on the web site may be missing due to the dynamic nature of the website. Once again, it becomes a burden to locate the desired information. Generally, in all of these instances, the content is typically still available somewhere online, but locating the content or the link to the content is not an intuitive process.
Another common phenomenon that often leads to “loss of data” includes filling out a form “submitable” on-line. Filling out forms that are retrieved online is common among computer users and is commonly performed when, for example making car, airline, or hotel reservations, ordering goods, paying bills and requesting services or applying for a job. After the form is filled out, or partially filled out, the form can be submitted by selecting a “submit” button in a user-browser interaction. Often such information is “lost” when a user submits the completed form on-line and a blank form appears next on the user's computer display.
A common occurrence when submitting information on-line, is that a message will be sent back to the user stating that the form was incorrectly filled out or a form processing server was unable to process the form submission wherein the blanked form thereafter appears to the user. In this process, it is common that lengthy entries have been made by the user and in the submission process the user entries are instantaneously deleted. This can be particularly frustrating when the form is long, and tedious to fill out often requiring the user to look up data while making the entries.
One common reaction for a frustrated user is to press a “Back” button provided by the browser which typically will not redisplay what was submitted. Often this is a built in feature to address security concerns. Thus, hours worth of work can be erased instantaneously. There is, therefore, a need for an efficient and effective system to archive information, data and links that can be lost or periodically changes.